Arrived at the Hellespont, Darius allowed a part of the army under Megabyzus to remain on the European shore for the purpose of besieging Perinthus and the other cities on that coast, with the rest he passed on the raft to the Asiatic side: the conduct of sieges was no task for a king. But he wished to remain at Sardis in the neighbourhood till the rebels were punished, the passage secured, and till the auxiliaries for the army of Megabyzus and their communications were settled. Otanes, the son of Sisamnes, received the command on the Asiatic shore; he besieged and destroyed Abydus, reduced the cities on the Trojan coast, on the southern shore of the Propontis, and then turned against Chalcedon and Byzantium, while in the mean time Megabyzus had besieged and taken Perinthus and the cities on the northern coast of the Propontis. The campaign against the Scythians was not to remain without results; Darius could not allow himself to set foot in Europe for nothing. When only Chalcedon and Byzantium remained unconquered, Otanes received the command over the troops on both shores, and Megabyzus was commanded to make the tribes of the Thracians on the west as far as the Strymon subjects of the Persian king. Chalcedon was the first to fall after a protracted siege. The exiles from Chalcedon and Byzantium founded Mesembria.[287] FOOTNOTES: [245] "Pers." 555, 644, 654, 852 ff. 900. [246] Herod. 3, 92-94, 97; 7, 78, 79. Xenoph. "Anab." 5, 4; 7, 8. Arrian ("Anab." 3, 11) mentions Albanians in the army of the last Darius. [247] Herod. 4, 44. [248] Vol. IV. 384. [249] Exc. Vatic. p. 35 = 10, 19, 5. [250] Herod. 3, 139, 140. [251] Herod. 3, 141-149. Paus. 7, 5, 4, ff. Heracl. Pont. Fragm. 10, ed. Müller. [252] Herod. 4, 138. [253] Ctes. "Pers." 16. [254] At a later time Xerxes caused Sataspes to sail round Africa. [255] Herod. 4, 1. [256] Herod. 4, 85, 87. [257] 360 triremes and penteconters were used for the bridge of Xerxes. Herod. 7, 36. [258] Herod. 4, 87. [259] Polyb. 4, 39. [260] Strabo, p. 319, 320. Opposite the temple of the Chalcedonians on the mouth of the Pontus, which was sacred to Zeus Urias (now Anadoli Kavak), there lay on the European shore also on the mouth of the Pontus a temple of the Byzantines which later authors call the Serapeum (now Rumili Kavak). Scyl. "Peripl." 67. [261] Herodotus allows the Bosphorus a breadth of four stades; Strabo in one passage mentions four, in another five; p. 125, 319. Modern authors do not agree in their measurements (Grote, "Hist. of Greece," 5, 26), but give about 1-1/4 mile, _i.e._ above 5000 feet for the narrowest part, and five miles for the widest. For the narrowest place most authorities allow about 3900 feet, _i.e._ 6-1/2 stades; cp. Kruse, on Herodotus' measurement of the Pontus, s, 41. On the other hand, Moltke ("Briefe," s. 82) gives the following: At the northern mouth between the light-houses, 4166 paces; at Tell Tabia, 1497 paces; between the castles, 958 paces.